So my Steel Defender is a very integral part of my character and our story. I’m about to level up into an ASI and I’m considering a feat. I already have mounted combatant (yes, my DM let’s me mount my Steel Defender). Are there any other feats I could choose if my goal is specifically to help protect or work with my Steel Defender more effectively?
1. Fighting Initiate and then choose the Protection fighting style. Now you and your SD can both prevent your enemies from hitting yourselves by giving disadvantages, every round for no cost.
2. This needs the DMs permission, but with the Telekinetic feat, when you use the feature to shove a creature as a bonus action and your SD chooses to fail the save, it and you can get away from your enemies without provoking opportunity attacks, because being shoved counts as forced movement.
3. Polearm Master and Sentinel. When they can't get to you, they can't get to your SD! Hopefully your DM allows PM with a lance...
Sentinel is the obvious feat for a tag-team group like a Battlesmith and their Steel Defender. If the two of you are on top of an enemy... if they target you, SD gives them disadvantage on the attack, and if they target your SD, Sentinel lets you whack them and keep them in place. If they decide to just try to disengage and get away, you can pin them in place and trap them there. There's really no downside and it synergizes beautifully with the subclass.
The other obvious choice is Mounted Combatant. I'm assuming you're playing as a Small-sized creature, since the SD is traditionally a Medium creature, so the advantage against creatures smaller than your Mount probably won't come up often unless you're facing a lot of goblins and kobolds, but it's a nice little bit of gravy. The rest of the feat, however, is focused heavily on protecting your Steel Defender. Here's an interesting combo that this feat allows... if a creature targets your SD with an attack while you're mounted, you can force the attack to target you instead. However, your SD can then use their reaction to give disadvantage on that attack, so even if an enemy gets tired of your SD giving them disadvantage on attacking you and decided to target your SD instead, you can use the feat to force them to target you anyway. It also essentially gives your mount the Evasion skill while you're mounted, so they're guaranteed to take, at most, half damage from DEX-save attacks, and potentially take 0 damage.
So my Steel Defender is a very integral part of my character and our story. I’m about to level up into an ASI and I’m considering a feat. I already have mounted combatant (yes, my DM let’s me mount my Steel Defender). Are there any other feats I could choose if my goal is specifically to help protect or work with my Steel Defender more effectively?
1. Fighting Initiate and then choose the Protection fighting style. Now you and your SD can both prevent your enemies from hitting yourselves by giving disadvantages, every round for no cost.
2. This needs the DMs permission, but with the Telekinetic feat, when you use the feature to shove a creature as a bonus action and your SD chooses to fail the save, it and you can get away from your enemies without provoking opportunity attacks, because being shoved counts as forced movement.
3. Polearm Master and Sentinel. When they can't get to you, they can't get to your SD! Hopefully your DM allows PM with a lance...
Sentinel is the obvious feat for a tag-team group like a Battlesmith and their Steel Defender. If the two of you are on top of an enemy... if they target you, SD gives them disadvantage on the attack, and if they target your SD, Sentinel lets you whack them and keep them in place. If they decide to just try to disengage and get away, you can pin them in place and trap them there. There's really no downside and it synergizes beautifully with the subclass.
The other obvious choice is Mounted Combatant. I'm assuming you're playing as a Small-sized creature, since the SD is traditionally a Medium creature, so the advantage against creatures smaller than your Mount probably won't come up often unless you're facing a lot of goblins and kobolds, but it's a nice little bit of gravy. The rest of the feat, however, is focused heavily on protecting your Steel Defender. Here's an interesting combo that this feat allows... if a creature targets your SD with an attack while you're mounted, you can force the attack to target you instead. However, your SD can then use their reaction to give disadvantage on that attack, so even if an enemy gets tired of your SD giving them disadvantage on attacking you and decided to target your SD instead, you can use the feat to force them to target you anyway. It also essentially gives your mount the Evasion skill while you're mounted, so they're guaranteed to take, at most, half damage from DEX-save attacks, and potentially take 0 damage.
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